"What?!"

"Who says you have to be neat to eat?"

Cow Invasion!

This past Saturday morning I was looking out the window admiring several deer in our backyard.  There were about nine of them grazing and they all seemed so peaceful.  It was very serene.  And then all of those relaxed deer started to tense up a little and then I saw them begin to swiftly walk east.  I went up to the window for a closer look.  I saw what looked like a large deer begin to come out of the woods, but as the animal drew more fully into the open I saw that this was no deer.  This was a large and kind of shaggy cow!

Our yard was invaded by four cows.  These large animals casually traipsed through our backyard and then through our side yard where Sylvia got to watch them (with glee!) from her bedroom window.  Finally they rounded to the front of our house and eventually walked down our driveway and out onto the street.  The last I saw they had crossed the road and had wandered into the woods.

We are not sure where they came from, but we think they must have gotten loose from a hobby farm.  I tried calling the sheriff's office, but the first number I called gave me this recorded message:  "The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected . . "  The second number I tried calling gave me this message:  "We are currently closed.  Our regular business hours are . . ."

Yep.  Life in the country is never dull.

Oh!  And both our girls can now tell you what a cow says, "Mmmmmm!"  (Because, yes, Veda imitates her sister before she will imitate us.)

Pajama Trends

Veda does not know how to wear her pajamas.  She never has and at this point I am beginning to suspect that she never will.  Every single morning when I go in to get her she has her pajamas on incorrectly.  Often both legs are caught in the body of her pajamas and the legs hang empty.  Sometimes she has both legs stuffed down her left leg.  Other times she has her left leg in her left pant leg but her right leg is caught in the body. And sometimes she has her right leg in her left pant leg and her left leg caught in the body.

But probably the look she is most proud of is when she can manage to get her left leg in her right pant leg and her right leg in her left pant leg.  See above and below.

And if you think this was a one time occurrence, you are mistaken:

More of What I Do

I suppose I wanted to "toot my own horn" but I thought I would share what I made Daxton and Veda for their first birthdays.  The above is a sweater vest and matching bow tie I made Dax.  I think he looks rather handsome in this set:

And for the Vedabug I made her a cabled owl sweater:

It would be really adorable if I sewed buttons on all the owl eyes, but I am not certain that is such a good idea for a child still young enough to want to eat carpet fiber from the floor.  I could also embroider the owl faces, but that just sounded like too much work and my embroidery is not very good.  The bottom line is that I like the sweater as is, and I am proud of it, and if I attempt to do anything else to it I may not like it as much.  Besides, she still looks pretty gosh darn cute in it.  Cute enough, in fact, that she had her one year pictures taken today wearing this sweater.

Outdoor Fun and Snazzy Outfit

Yesterday Dave took the girls out to play in the snow late in the afternoon. It has been a rough winter for outdoor play because we have almost always had too much snow for the girls to be in.  Even as it was, Sylvia still could hardly walk around in the stuff and their time outside was rather short as a result.  But it was so cute watching the three of them walk around with even more flakes falling on them.  In the above picture Veda is waving at me.

And here both of my girls are saying, "Hi, Mama!"

We had Veda so dressed up she was like a little snow monster.  First, it was very cold and I was worried about our youngest getting too chilled as she would not be doing any walking around to warm her little body.  Second, the only snow pants we had were what Sylvia wore last year.  Well, the Pumpkin was quite a bit larger than what the Lovebug is, so Veda was swimming in them.  But even if she couldn't move, she was so cute!

After all of the day's excitement, and the girls had had their baths and were in their pajamas, Sylvia decided to accessorize.  It is hard to see, but in addition to the hat she is also wearing her gold sparkly shoes.

I think she does this because not only does she love being able to dress herself in these items, but also because she thinks she looks awesome in them!  And I would have to agree.

The Lunchbox

I was doing toy cleanup the other night after the girls were in bed.  I was collecting various Little People pieces, belonging to Sylvia, that go with this:

I am very glad I am so uptight about keeping toys in sets together because when I opened this little box, I found this:

Yes, she had packed herself a lunch:  Sippy, half eaten apple and a dalmatian.

Winter Days

We have been cooped up for a while now.  Between the weather and having only one vehicle, we haven't been out of the house much.  For the most part, this is all right.  The girls and I have had a lot of fun some days.  Currently, Sylvia is going through an "all mommy, all the time" phase.  Just now I went in to her room to say goodnight (after coming home from knitting-- my first "me" outing in three weeks).  I lied on the bed next to her and talked with her about her evening.  And then when I got up to leave, she pulled me back down and slammed her hand down on the side of my head, placing my face back onto her pillow.  Kind of sweet.  Kind of funny.  Kind of irritating.

Sylvia is also going through more, what I call, "growing pains."  She has been testing the boundaries a lot again lately.  We are trying a rewards approach this time.  She currently has a set of Elmo utensils taped to her bedroom wall.  She also has a six day chart taped to her wall.  For every morning she wakes up and she has not played in her dresser drawers during the night she gets one sticker for her chart and one for her to wear.  After six days, she gets her Elmo fork and spoon.  We'll see what happens.

Veda is sick.  She got a pretty nasty cold virus AND she has four teeth on top all trying to poke through right now.  She has been a pretty grumpy little girl and I don't blame her.  But it did mean that I was up with her most of last night.  She would start to scream, so I would go in and comfort her.  She would drift to sleep.  About forty minutes later she would wake up again-- either from pain or trouble breathing --and begin to scream again.  I knew she was truly uncomfortable and scared so I had to be in there with her.  And I needed to make sure Dave could at least sleep.  But it did make for a long night.

An interesting side note:  When I was filing Veda's stats from her twelve month wellness check, I also flipped through Sylvia's old numbers.  Upon doing so, I discovered that Sylvia had the exact same measurements at nine months as Veda did at twelve.

Veda is also beginning to climb!  She now climbs on top of the girls' little picnic table and she adores their little chairs in the living room.  She loves being able to climb in and out and to stand on them:

Truly, both of my kids are fun kids.  And I love spending time with them.  They make me laugh a lot.  And when the days are rough I just keep cycling my little chant in my mind:  "I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids."  And then I pray that nap time not only arrives soon, but that both girls will sleep for the same time for at least long enough for me to use the bathroom and drink a cup of coffee in silence!